Category Archives: Gardening

by | May 9, 2013

Kill Weeds Naturally Using alternative to Roundup

I recently read this concept on another website.  I thought it was good information worthy of posting.  I was unable to “press this,” so here is the website and my version of the article:  The link to the article is at the bottom.

How to kill weeds and avoid Roundup:

1. Newspaper: A carpet of newspaper, which blocks sunlight and oxygen from reaching the soil, will smother weeds already sprouted and prevent new ones from growing. Throw down newspaper in 10-sheet layers, wet to hold it down, and cover with an inch or two of mulch. If weeds begin to grow in the mulch, add more layers, making a mulch-newspaper lasagna, which eventually will decompose and nourish the soil.

2. Old shower curtains and carpet samples: Spreading these useless items in garden paths or between rows will keeps weeds from ever showing their unwanted heads. Cover with mulch.

3. Corn gluten meal: This corn by-product stops seeds from growing into weeds. Since the meal will prevent germination, spread it around established plants, and after seedlings and transplants have taken hold in the soil. After harvest, spread the meal to prevent late-season weeds.

4. Vinegar: The acetic acid in 5% vinegar is a desiccant that sucks the life out of plant leaves. It’s most destructive to young plants with immature roots, though it just rolls off weeds with waxy leaves, like pennywort or thistle.

Make sure you cover desirables before spraying, because vinegar is an equal opportunity killer. Keep your spray on-target by removing the bottom from a 2-liter plastic soda bottle, and placing it over the weed. Spray vinegar into the mouth of the bottle, which will keep it from splattering on your vegetables.

5. Vodka: Don’t know if vodka makes weeds fall down dead or drunk, but 1 ounce mixed with 2 cups of water and a couple of drops of dish soap will dry out weeds that live in the sun. Doesn’t work that well on shade-loving weeds. Protect desirables, because vodka will dry them out, too.

6. Soap: The oil in soap can break down waxy or hairy weed surfaces, making them vulnerable to desiccants. So add a few drops of liquid dish detergent to vinegar or vodka sprays to keep the solution on leaves. The soap also makes leaves shiny, which will help you keep track of what you’ve sprayed.

7. Boiling water: After you’ve made yourself a cup of tea, take the kettle outside and pour the boiling water on weeds, which will burn up. This is a particularly good way to whack driveway and walkway weeds, because the boiling water can run off impervious surfaces and cool before it reaches border plants.

 

Another new link compliments of John Murray on Facebook: http://myhoneysplace.com/how-to-make-your-own-weed-killer/

Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/landscaping-gardening/how-to-get-rid-of-weeds-naturally/#ixzz1xjRTrGjR

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by | April 12, 2013

Our attempt at Growing Garlic 2012-2013

Our attempt at Growing Garlic 2012-2013

Here is an update with one of our current trials for us, our attempt at growing garlic.  We were able to obtain about 7 or 8 dried plants from a friend of ours last fall.  Garlic is one kitchen staple that we have not attempted to grow.  I have had good intentions, but have failed to buy the bulbs and get them planted in time.  By the time that the garden is wrapped up in the fall, it takes every bit of us to clean it up om order to have to go the following Spring.  This past year, I was able t get the bulbs and plant them in the ground.  I am very excited to begin growing garlic for our own use.

English: This is one full head of garlic besid...

This is one full head of garlic beside another with removed cloves (one clove of garlic has been peeled)  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is what I know about garlic:

  • It is a unique garden plant, as it is planted in the fall and then harvested the following autumn.
  • It is supposed to be a very adaptable plant, often modifying i’ts properties to accommodate the specific soil in which it is grown.
  • It is a very useful plant, mainly used for adding its distinct flavor to meals (often times of the Italian persuasion).
  • It is also a very useful medicinal plant.  Its reported benefits include anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant and anti-fungal properties.
  • One potentially useful tip for growing garlic is to separate the cloves right before planting them.  This is reported to result in faster growth due to less disruption of the roots at the time of planting.

 

So continuing with what we were able to do this past year, we were able to separate the bulbs into individual cloves.  We then took each cloves and planted it about 1/2 inch below the soil with the pointed end facing up.  We spaced the bulbs about 4 to 6 inches apart.  Since one of the plantings was essentially an afterthought, we placed some in one of our flower beds.  We also created two other plantings in the main garden.

 

 

Overripe peeled garlic cloves

Peeled garlic cloves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As we monitored these plants off and on, we noticed that many of the bulbs were pushed up through the surface due to the freeze-thaw cycles.  We replaced these, trying to cover them with enough soil to hold them in place as the temperatures fluctuated.  I believe that you are supposed to cover these plants with some type of mulch to protect them from frost as the tips appear through the ground in early spring.  We did mound some extra soil around them, but did not have a readily available mulch supply at the time.

 

Here is a picture of our growing garlic as it stands on April 10th, 2013:
image

 

 

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by | March 15, 2013

The Art of Gardening

The Art of Gardening

Gardening is a release at times, yet a burden at others.  Many people are passionate about their gardens, whether it is a bed of roses or a productive vegetable garden.  Gardening is definitely an art form, IMHO.

According to Wikipedia: “Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article focuses primarily on the visual arts, which includes the creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media.“

Wikipedia goes on to say that art can be an expression of emotion.  This leads me to ask, is gardening an art?  From here on out, I will refer to gardening as The Art of Gardening.

image

The art of gardening is one of the most popular activities in the world.  Many people enjoy creating a masterpiece upon the canvass of soil.  This masterpiece incorporates colors, textures, depth, three dimensions and shading……then combines them with the aromatic sense of smell.

Gardens come in many shapes and sizes.  They are as varied as the people who grow and maintain them.  It is an artform that we truly enjoy as part of out sustainable homestead.

 
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This article was inspired in part by the following blog post:  http://patcegan.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/the-hoe/

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by | January 11, 2013

Spinach Surprise

Spinach Surprise

Today the rains came and the snow thawed.  We went from having several inches of snow this morning to no snow this afternoon (other than the snow piles around the driveway).  I got the itch to garden today, so I ventured up to the garden.  It was a wet sloppy mess.  The leaves that we put on the garden in the fall are all matted down and beginning to deteriorate.  We will try to till those in as soon as the garden dries out in the Spring.

I noticed that the garlic plants still have their small, green shoots sticking up.  I found a few more bulbs in the garage and took them up to the garden.  I simply planted them by pushing them into the ground until the point that I could barely see the tips sticking out.

English: Spinach plant, Castelltallat, Catalon...

English: Spinach plant, Castelltallat, Catalonia Català: Planta d’espinac a principis de novembre, Castelltallat, Bages (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To my surprise at the garden, there was an abundance of spinach and lettuce that was still green.  The lettuce looked rather weak and wilted, but the spinach looked (and tasted) fairly good.  I was surprised to see this, but then again, the snow came so fast that it may have actually insulated the plants from the bitter cold.  The spinach is high in iron, calcium, and many other vitamins and minerals.  I was glad to see how cold tolerant the spinach actually was.

Spinach

Spinach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are getting ready (perhaps tomorrow) to move our cold frame and try to plant a few varieties of lettuce.  This will hopefully get us a start on some self-grown food for the year.  We have been buying organic over the past few years and it is downright expensive.  We might as well grow our own.

We also still have some kale and chard that does not look too bad.  I decided to pick some to feed to the chickens just to see what would happen.  The girls (and their beau) loved the greens.  I am not certain, but I doubt that the kale lasted much more than two minutes.  This is good, seeing that we paid almost .50 a pound for all mash chicken feed. That is getting out of hand and has me thinking about ways to grow our own chicken feed for the whole year.  I am thinking about planting several very long rows of Blue Hopi corn.  This is a heirloom variety that we grew and saved seeds from.  This is one of the ways that we will possibly be able to save on costs over the next year or so.

The bigger issue is what to do to process the corn and to crack it.  I have a friend who is considering building a small roller mill to be used to crack the kernels in small batches.  This will allow the chickens to eat freshly cracked corn, rather than corn that was cracked weeks ago.  Cracking the corn at a much earlier date subjects it to oxidization, which must degrade some of the nutrients.  Once the roller mill is up an running, I till then need to devise some type of all mash formula.  Should the mill never come to fruition, I am considering trying to purchase a used wood chipper that I can modify for the purpose of cracking the corn.

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by | November 16, 2012

Homesteading Series Part 6a Plant Selection

HOMESTEADING SERIES

PART 6a

PLANT SELECTION

We left off the last time with needing to cover fruit and berry plants.

Fruit Trees

Apple fruit

Apple fruit (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

 

I recommend having apple trees.  Apple trees may be a bit hard to take care of, but they are such a good producer of fruit.  I recommend dwarf apple trees, as the traditional varieties get very tall.  We have some trees that are 15 feet tall and very difficult to manage.  The dwarf varieties are more manageable.  Apples can be preserved easily in the from of applesauce.  This allows for year-round enjoyment.

 

Blueberries:  We love blueberries.  They are an excellent source of vitamins and antioxidants.  One key with blueberries is to have two varieties.  Two varieties are necessary because one variety will produce fruit.  There are several types of plants, separated into categories in different ways.  The first category is high bush versus low bush.  The other way to categorize the plants are by when they produce their fruit.  One major problem with blueberries is that birds love them.  Many people chose to cover their blueberry bushes with nets in order to keep the birds from eating all of the fruit.  Another thing to note with blueberry bushes is that they require a low pH.  This means no lime applications.  One of the things that I know of to produce a low pH are pine needles.

Grapes:  We have concord grapes, which we use to produce a lot of homemade grape jelly.  We also use them to produce grape juice concentrate, which we then reconstitute.  The main thing with grapes is pruning them.  I suggest looking up some articles on how to prune grape vines.  Other uses for grapes are as an edible food and to make wine.

English: Leafs and grapes of the white grape v...

English: Leafs and grapes of the white grape variety Johanniter. Deutsch: Blätter und Trauben der weißen Rebsorte Johanniter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Grapes come in many varieties.  White grapes and red grapes are commonly found in the produce section of many grocery stores.

Strawberries:  There are two main types of strawberries that I am aware of.  The first are Alpine strawberries.  These plants do not produce runners.  There is a second type that produces runners.  The ones that produce runners are very prolific, but can get out of hand and out of their designated area.  I suppose that there is another subcategory.  There are June bearing and Ever bearing.  The June bearing produce berries basically once a year.  They will tend to produce a robust crop over two to four weeks.  The Ever bearing types will produce off and on throughout the year.

Raspberries:  These seem to be easy to grow.  We inherited a patch and it seems to do well on its own.  We have berries that produce fruit twice a year.  In the Spring, new canes grow up.  There are cans left from the previous year as well.  The old canes in the Spring will produce a final crop that season and then die off.  The new shoots will produce fruit in the fall and then again the following Spring.  There are thornless varieties that have been produced as well.

Other: Peach trees are often found on homesteads.  We are currently trying a cherry tree and a plum tree.

In addition to these plants and the ones mentioned in the first article on plant selection, there are nut trees.  Walnut trees are popular in our area.  There are so many plants that can be incorporated into a homesteading plan or system.

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by | September 22, 2012

Post 200: Our Farming Principles

600 and 200:  What do those Numbers mean?  Well 600 is the number of views on the website and 200 is the number of posts.  This post represents the 200th overall post here at heritagebreedsfarm.com.  We are excited to have hit this milestone.  An interesting point to note is that today is the 264th day of the year.  This means that we have generated about 5 posts per week.

English: Three chicken eggs of contrasting col...

Well, with this milestone, I felt it appropriate to summarize what we represent and what we strive to achieve.  Our theories and principles are as follows:

  1. A return to the family farm.  We feel that nothing can be better than the farm life.  Though it can be hard and trying at times, there are many advantages to farming.  We believe that the farm life is centered around the family first.  We can teach our children to be helpful and responsible by raising animals.  If the animals are dependent upon them, it gives them a much greater sense of responsibility than simply whether or not they clean their rooms or take their dishes to the sink. We want to teach our children that their actions have an effect on life and lack of responsibility has consequences.
  2. A respect for the Creator‘s creation.  Not that I did not say respect for the environment.  I state it this way because God calls us to work the land and to be CARETAKERS.  Why the bold?  Well, unfortunately it seems as though Christians are opposed to environmentalism.  I believe that this is due to the fact that environmentalism is basically a religion that serves to worship the creation (environment) rather than the creator.  Yet, as Christians, we are called to protect the creation.  We practice organic practices for this reason.  God created this planet and I feel that we do not need toxic, synthetic chemicals to try to preserve it.  We simply need to not be destructive and truly care for the land, while using it at the same time.
  3. Organic Principles:  We promote organic principles, not only for the good of the land, but ultimately for the good of the consumer (us).  It is our belief that raising organic meat, eggs and vegetables is better for the end consumer due to fewer antibiotic residues and fewer chemical components potentially getting into the end product, such as the meat or eggs.
  4. Free ranging/ natural approaches.  We believe that not only is this better and more humane for the animal, but this produces a better end product as well.  An example of this practice is free range chicken eggs.  Click here to see why free range chicken eggs are superior to eggs produced by factory farming.
  5. Using Heritage Breeds.  We use heritage breeds as they are well-suited to produce in a smaller setting.  These breeds have fallen out of favor because they do not thrive in a factory farming environment.  Factory farming is set up based on intensive practices.  Animals are often fed a TMR (Total mixed ration) instead of a more natural roughage-based diet.  They are also fed grain-based diets in order to push them to higher production levels.
  6. Grass Fed Principles:  This may follow on the heels of the above principle, but it is important to what we believe.  Click HERE for a link to a posting regarding grass fed beef in particular.  Click HERE for the article about free range chicken eggs.
We would love for you to become a follower of our website.  Hopefully you find our principles and articles helpful.
Until Next Time!
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